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of personal safety to save the honor of three days fighting and toil.
The enemy made use of every advantage he thought he could gain, but not a move did he make that escaped the quick glance of the division or brigade commander, who would face about or change his front as the occasion required, delivering a few volleys so well directed as to check and drive back the enemy utterly discomfited.
For two miles this military game was played with such success by the Second brigade as to cause the rebel chief to draw off, virtually acknowledging himself checkmated at the game he begun and seemed anxious to play.
This retreat over that field was a sight so grand and beautiful in its management that it attracted the attention of every officer and man who could leave his command to witness it. The heights in front and on the rear were filled with persons of high and low rank, almost grown boisterous with pleasurable excitement as each move of the troops of General White showed them the discomfited enemy falling back to assume a new offensive movement, and to meet the same fate as before.
General Burnside, who witnessed its management, pronounced it a masterly effort against such numbers.
Night coming on and the enemy growing less troublesome, Colonel Chapin, commanding the brigade, who had been unwell for a number of days but had refused to leave the field while the enemy was in the front, was now suffering so that he was ordered to quit his post, and the command devolved upon Colonel W. E. Hobson, of the Thirteenth Kentucky, who led the men from the field and conducted the retreat to Knoxville.
To mention the names of the brave men, officers and privates, who did deeds deserving of record, would be to name every man engaged.
Not one flinched from the work before him. The historian of the war will find a goodly part of the material for his work here, and do credit to this band of heroes.
Having been a witness of all that occurred during the time of which I have written, I feel justified in mentioning a few names that came forth covered with a halo of glory.
Of General Burnside I shall say nothing.
The country knows him, and he is a subject too grand for my pen. Of the General commanding the Second division, Twenty-third army corps, Brigadier-General White, I cannot say enough to do him justice.
He was everywhere present during the fights, scorning to refuse to share the danger his men were exposed to, and endured cheerfully the hardships of the entire march.
The “watchful General” he may well be called.
Not a minute did he quit his post or take his eye off the enemy, from the time he received the news of his being at Huff's Ferry until his arrival here; but watching every movement they made, acted as his good judgment suggested when thrown upon his own resources, and always with success.
He communicated to his chief at Knoxville all the information he received, and obeyed implicitly every order he obtained from that quarter.
Among the Generals here is one at least “sans peur et sans reproche.”
To the members of his staff the report of General White will, I presume, do justice.
Their names only are necessary here: Captains Henry Curtis, Jr., F. G. Hentig, James A. Lee, Lieutenants Lowrie and Edmiston.
They were with the General always except when upon duty.
Of Colonel Chapin, commanding the Second brigade of Second division, Twenty-third army corps, I need not add to what I have said.
His excellent management of the troops upon three fields, and his personal bravery, have attached him to his men as few commanders are attached.
His staff, Captains Gallup and Sheldon and Lieutenant Pearson, are worthy followers of their brave leader.
Colonel W. E. Hobson, of the Thirteenth Kentucky, upon whom the command of the brigade at times devolved, behaved always as became the hero of Huff's Ferry. Lieutenant-Colonel Lowry, of the One Hundred and Seventh Illinois; Major Sherwood, of the One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio; and Major Wheeler, of the Twentythird Michigan, each commanding, all carried themselves nobly.
I must mention the name of ex-Colonel Joseph J. Kelly, of the One Hundred and Seventh Illinois, whose resignation had just been accepted, and who intended to start for his home in Illinois the day of the fight at Huff's Ferry, but would not leave while the regiment he had so long commanded was in the face of the enemy.
He was with them all the time, urging them to the performance of their duty and to victory, and still remains, as he says, to “see it through.”
The Ninth army corps was engaged only in the battle of Campbell's Station, and there sustained the honor of their past history.
The troops arrived at Knoxville at daylight November seventeenth, from which time dates the siege of the place, of which
more anon.
